


Scapegoat

by RiddlePanda



Category: South Park
Genre: Drug Withdrawal, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 22:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13510848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiddlePanda/pseuds/RiddlePanda
Summary: There was only a matter of time when the Tweaks would be busted for the meth in the coffee.Tweek always knew in his heart that his parents would pin the blame on him.





	Scapegoat

His head pounded. Eyes were puffy and felt like they were being stabbed over and over, dark bags under them from not sleeping the night before. His stomach lurched and gurgled, begging for food, but just the thought made him sick. He shivered and shook as he glared at the black man in front of him.

“One cup. I compromised to get you one cup. I wish I could give you the whole Thermos. It’s the caramel one you like at the house. Linda brewed it especially for you. She misses her Sunday coffee buddy.”

“I’ll take it Mr. Black. It’s better than none.”

The man nodded and reached over to grab the small Styrofoam cup the guard was holding and slid it across the table.

Tweek immediately snatched it and took a small sip, instantly relaxing. The blonde took a deep breath of the beverage before taking another gulp, savoring the caramel offsetting the bitterness.

“I know Mr. Black. I’ll wean myself after…but cold turkey quitting sucks ass. They’re doing it on purpose. I just know it. _They’re_ still getting it.”

“I’m aware Tweek.”

Tweek took another sip, closing his eyes to try to ebb the throbbing in his head down. “They’re trying to make me crack. Trying to make me panic. I think they record me at night, trying to find something. Th-They won’t you know. There’s nothing to say. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know Tweek. I believe you. That’s why I’m your lawyer.”

—————————

There was meth in the coffee of Tweak Bros Coffeehouse. Always had been. And finally someone had figured it out and called the cops.

And Tweek couldn’t sleep at all because he kept seeing the look his father gave him as the cops came to arrest the Tweaks. The look that sealed his nearly eighteen year old fate. The reason why he had already spent a week in a jail cell, under observation, subject to multiple drug tests and interrogation, the police refusing to even give him one cup of coffee. He couldn’t even get to see Craig. They had him on severe lockdown.

_“So that’s why my son’s a spaz. He’s the only one that works in the back. He probably put the drugs there! Just **LOOK** at him!”_

Tweek denied everything despite everyone doing everything in their power to make him confess. Even Mr. Broflovski, who had been hired by his parents for them, tried to beat down the boy. His only relief from the yelling and prodding and the withdrawal symptoms he knew he was having had been seeing an all too familiar face three days after being locked up.

Token’s dad stared down the boy before coming to sit beside him and wrapped his arms around the shaking boy. For the first time since getting locked up, Tweek cried silently as Mr. Black pulled him closer.

—————————

Had Mr. Black not intervened, the case would be open and shut. With the way Tweek acted and the way his parents didn’t, to the naked eye, it looked like Tweek was on pretty much every illegal drug on the market.

It didn’t help that it seemed everyone was out for the boy’s blood. The police had given him the tiniest, coldest cell with a thin blanket. No windows and only the empty opposite cell as anything to look at. He stayed silent since the guards on duty would harshly hit his cell if he so much as made a peep. It didn’t help that the withdrawal started hitting him that first day and he tried his hardest to keep from giving in and doing what everyone expected him to do.

Mr. Black pushed for a trial, waiving any fees that incurred for his services. Tweek had enough pressure and Steve actually liked the blonde. He had pushed for the Tweaks to get the same testing done as their son, since they drank the same coffee as well. Meth would no doubt be in their system, but Steve had a plan and had the mentality of an angry parent. No matter what way you looked at it, Tweek was one of his kids who was being tried for a crime Mr. Black knew in his heart the blonde hadn’t committed, he just needed to convince the jury of it.

—————————-

The day of the trial came up fast and Mr. Black handed one of Token’s dress up shirts and pants to the shaking teen.

“Did you sleep any?”

Tweek shook his head and he ran his fingers over the thick material, grateful for something to cover where he had begun biting and scratching himself.

“Look in the pants pockets. There’s something there for you.”

Tweek tried not to cry as he carefully pulled out the folded pieces of paper from Token, Clyde, and Jimmy. Craig hadn’t left a note, but instead put in a picture of him taken while he was working at in the projector room of the movie theater with words of love and missing him on the back.

“None of them can come to the trial since they’re underage, but they’ll all be waiting out there for you after we win.”

Tweek nodded as Mr. Black grabbed Tweek’s blanket and held it up so the boy could have privacy as he changed out of the clothes the police had provided.

————————————-

As Tweek was getting adjusted in his chair in the courtroom, gulping down a cup of water, Mr. Black was approached by a young woman in a lab coat as he was setting up his documents and making sure he had what he had acquired a few nights before.

“Here’s the reports that you requested. Interesting results.”

As the woman headed over to hand the same papers to Mr. Broflovski and the judge, Mr. Black glanced over the papers he received and grinned. “Interesting indeed.”

—————————-

The opening statements were made and both of Tweek’s parents had taken the stand. Steve could see Gerald’s small smirk as the Tweaks perfectly gave the same story without discrepancies. They worked in the front and Tweek worked in the back so they didn’t know what Tweek was doing with the coffee. Tweek’s mother sobbed and Mr. Black could see she was garnering sympathy from the jury. He wanted to play his cards, but knew until Tweek spoke, that the jury and judge were still wrapped around the Tweak’s fingers.

Finally, Tweek was called up. The boy twitched and Mr. Black gently walked with him to the stand.

“Alright, Mr. Tweak. What is your version of the events?”

Tweek gripped the material of his pants, digging his nails into his skin to keep from being reminded of the throbbing in his head. “I…I work in the back of m-my parent’s coffee shop sweeping and keeping stock of our products. I don’t use the grinders l-like my parents say I do, because they’re big and loud and if I get too close I could chop a finger off and **NGH** bleed over everything and the coffee would get ruined and the machines are too loud and no one would find me until later on and I’d be already dead and-”

“Tweek, relax.”

The blonde nodded and took a deep breath. “I’ve been working there s-since I was nine years old, g-getting Saturday off since it’s also my boyfriend’s day off and that’s our **NGH** date night.”

“Alright. Did you know there was meth in the coffee?”

Tweek twitched and shook his head. “N-No I didn’t. All I did was scoop the ground beans in bags and sealed it. It smelled weird, not like other coffee I drink, but I just thought that was the blend dad created to make it smell like that.”

“Then why do you look like a damn drug addict when my clients look perfectly normal!?”

The judge banged her gavel. “Mr. Broflovski!”

Mr. Black grinned and walked away from Tweek. “Ladies and gentleman, addiction is serious. We all have our addictions as it were and anything can be one. Let’s talk about coffee. My wife Linda, well…she’s a beast if she doesn’t get her morning coffee. Headaches, irritability, dizziness. She doesn’t even eat breakfast until she’s had one cup.”

He walked back over to Tweek. “What do you see when you see this young man? A drug addict? Or a young man that has been given coffee all his life and had it forcefully taken away? You see…while he’s been locked up, he’s been given one cup of coffee, a compromise that I got for him, while his parents have been able to have as much coffee as they wanted. Tweek here is suffering from caffeine withdrawal. Let’s see… headache, irritability, dizziness, cold-like symptoms, I’ve heard from the guard that he wouldn’t eat because food make him queasy, he hasn’t been sleeping, right now he’s clutching his leg because his muscles hurt. Is that right Tweek?”

The boy nodded and closed his eyes, rubbing them as he sniffed.

Mr. Black walked back to his briefcase and held up one of the documents he had received earlier. “In fact, we’ve all been given this paper before we started. I read it. Have any of you? It has some interesting results.”

He turned to look at Gerald as the man grabbed the paper and skimmed through it, his eyes growing wide.

“This paper, ladies and gentleman, is a lab report on the drug tests that all three clients have been receiving every day while they were in jail. As expected, Mr. and Mrs. Tweak **_DO_** have meth in their system from drinking their coffee at work. But… I find it funny that everyone keeps saying that my client is the drug addict…when all his test results came back clean.”

The courtroom grew silent before the whispers started.

“In fact, looking more into this, it seems that this was a thorough test, testing for anything. Caffeine is a drug as well and it seems the level of caffeine kept dropping in Tweek’s drug tests, only spiking the one day I got him a cup of coffee. Not only has his parents’ level of caffeine not dropped…neither has their meth level.”

Gerald slammed his hands on the table. “These results can’t be-”

Mr. Black turned around and smiled. “Have you done any research like I have? Meth, in any amount, starts to break down and get flushed out of the body after about seventy-two hours. Depending on the dose, it takes anywhere from two to ten days for it to be completely out of the system. All three of the Tweaks have been in jail for the past week, getting subject to drug testing. The Tweaks here don’t have results for the first three days since they were never given them, but Tweek has. And he’s clean for the entire week he’s been locked up. But the Tweaks, their meth level should have dropped significantly with each test, especially after they had the privilege of skipping that time where the meth would be in the highest amounts in their system. And I bet, if the Tweaks weren’t able to have coffee like my client, they’d look and act exactly like he does now, even worse with the meth in their system.”

Richard Tweak stood up, anger in his eyes. “Those results **_HAVE_** to be fabricated! There’s no way he couldn’t have any meth in his system when he was in the back constantly! He drank coffee like it was water! So he would have **_HAD_** to drink our coffee! That’s why I put him back there! So he could-”

Richard angrily stomped over to the witness stand, despite the guard trying to pull him back, and tried to lunge at Tweek. “I don’t know how they did it, but your system should be full of meth! That’s why I put you back there and made you drink cup after cup! So you could be dependent on the meth in **_OUR_** coffee! So you could be our scapegoat and take the fall for us when we finally got arrested!”

Tweek whimpered as he scooted his chair away from his father. “I… haven’t drank any of our coffee at the shop in years. It… It just tasted too gross to me, especially after putting sugar and creamer in it. A-And you always told me not to drink a lot of the coffee in the back because it was our profits and if I drank too much, you’d…you’d sell me into slavery because I ruined your business. S-So I drank coffee mainly at my **NGH** friends’s houses.”

The room grew silent once again and Mr. Black cleared his throat. “I do believe that is a confession.”

The man walked back to his briefcase and pulled out a thick plastic bag and a CD case. “I don’t think this will be necessary now, but these containers in this bag is what was pulled from the Tweak Bros. trash. They have been tested for meth and fingerprints and the results tested positive for meth and the only set of fingerprints are that of a Mr. Richard Tweak. Furthermore, I contacted the movie theater that’s next door and their surveillance cameras outside also pan out to catch the back door of the shop. The camera caught Richard Tweak on several occasions, accepting deliveries from these same containers from the back. And each of these instances? On a Saturday from the time stamp, the one day that Tweek **_WASN’T_** working.”

Tweek sniffed as his watery eyes locked onto his dad’s. “Wh-Why would you…do this? Was it the meth in your system? Is that why you wouldn’t let me play with m-my friends when I was younger? Just so you could turn me into something I wasn’t and I could take the **NGH** fall for you? Why? Why dad?! I thought you loved me… I loved you and mom. I did everything you asked of me. Why would you try to ruin my life?!”

Tweek put his hands over his eyes and sobbed. “I’m **NGH** a straight A student with a scholarship t-to Denver. I’ve tried my best despite my ADD and anxiety! Was this b-because I was gay? Did you do this because you didn’t like Craig or that he was taking me away from South Park once we graduated? Did anything I do make either of you proud?! Why!? I’m your child! Did…you ever love me? P-Parents who love their children…wouldn’t do this to them.”

The judge softly banged her gavel so as not to startle the blonde in the stand. “Well, I guess this is an open and shut case. We’ve got a confession and all the evidence we need. Young man, do you need anything?”

“I just want my boyfriend and a cup of coffee.”

“Mr. Black, is there anything else you want to address?”

The man nodded. “I would like to address the blatant child abuse that my client was subjected to, by both his parents and the police. Tweek **_IS_** still a minor.”

The judge nodded. “We’ll discuss it at a later time. Right now, I think this young man has suffered enough. Case dismissed in favor of Tweek Tweak.”

———————————–

Craig was the first one to see Tweek walking out of the courtroom, finally free from the ordeal he had been in. He ran up to Tweek and grabbed him, spinning him around before planting soft kisses over the boy’s face.

The two boys quickly turned into five as Token, Clyde, and Jimmy surrounded the two, each hugging Tweek and giving him words of encouragement and congratulations.

Mr. Black came up behind the boys and gently squeezed Tweek’s shoulder. “We’re going to have a small civil case on the way you were treated at the police station in a few weeks, but for now, let’s get you home. I know you’d probably want to be at Craig’s, but you’ve got a bedroom set up at our house if you want to make use of it. We do have a small party set up for you at the house.”

Tweek sniffed and nodded. “I’d like that. Thank you.”

As Tweek began climbing in the SUV, he turned to look as his parents were being put in the police car several feet away. He locked eyes with his dad and smiled, giving the man the same look his dad had given him a week before.

——————————

Tweek wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t a straight A student for nothing and definitely knew what meth did and that it was in the coffee at the coffee shop. Tweek’s friends and their parents knew as well, knowing to not buy anything but the pastries and the hot chocolate in the shop. Tweek had been scared they would all leave him, Craig especially, once they found out that Tweek had meth in his system, but they had all stayed. They had all became his new family. What had been in his system when he was a child was all but a distant memory. It took a lot of detoxing, even for the ten year old and even with Linda Black’s entire lab full of chemicals to help deter the withdrawal symptoms as much as they could, but Tweek had come out of the ordeal stronger.

Not like his parents figured out, still seeing him the same anxious, twitchy mess. They never paid any attention to him, never realized that Tweek’s room at the house was all but abandoned, his things strewn around the houses of his three friends and boyfriend. His sob story for the jury was just that and he was glad that his acting skills had only improved throughout the years. He wasn’t the lead in most of the plays in drama class for nothing. Tweek knew his parents didn’t care about him. Laura, Linda, and Sarah were more of a mom to him than his actual mom. Thomas had already called him his son-in-law and Steve, Roger, and Ryan proudly talked about Tweek’s accomplishments in tandem with their own sons.

Getting out of South Park and away from his parents was the big long-time goal. But the dangerous secret about Tweak Bros. always was at the front of his mind. Tweek always had a feeling that his dad would try to pull something, even when his dad stopped making him go get the deliveries himself. He just didn’t know when.

He knew they needed evidence in case it ever happened. Craig lucking out in getting the movie theater job was wonderful, especially when Craig moved the camera to capture more of the back of the coffee shop than the theater.

So was carefully grabbing the containers that had held the ground up meth in it during Tweek’s shift on Sunday night, giving them to Token’s father every week just in case.

The only thing Tweek didn’t account for was the aggressive demands his parents had given the cops in regards to him, the cops complying. He had found all this out weeks later when Mr. Black sued the police station on behalf of him, culminating in half the police force getting fired.

Tweek never figured out exactly how his parents were still being given the meth coffee that should have all been confiscated, until weeks later when he was finally able to go to school again and Kenny hugged the boy up and dropped into his Mysterion voice to tell the blonde he was glad everything worked out.

————————–

“Tweek, son…”

“I go by Tyler, my **_ACTUAL_** first name now. And once Craig and I graduate in a few weeks, I’ll officially be a Tucker, not like I haven’t been one since I was ten.”

The blonde’s steely gaze made the man in front of him shiver.

“I…I guess you’ve been doing okay?”

Tweek scoffed. “Oh yeah, my life has been great! No thanks to you or mom. Like I said, I’m about to graduate and get married. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that if our positions had been reversed.”

Richard looked down, trying to still his shaking hands. “We…might be getting out soon. Like a year or so?”

“And I care because? There’s nothing out there for you if you do.”

“W-We’re your parents! We-”

Another scoff. “Oh I’ve got parents already. Three and a half sets in fact. All of them made sure I was fed and clothed and got the desperate counseling and medicine I needed to help with the stuff that was actually wrong with me instead of placating it with coffee… with or without the meth.”

“How did you do it? How did you pass those drug tests?”

Tweek smirked. “Well…it’s pretty easy when you don’t have it in your system. I already told you back then that I didn’t drink the coffee at the shop. It’s gone by the way, the shop. I sold it to the U-Stor-It since they were expanding. Got a pretty good chunk of money from it.”

Richard’s eyes grew wide. “But that shop was built and started by your grandfather! How could you just destroy it like that!?”

“How could you just want to destroy **_MY_** life when I didn’t do anything wrong? Was it the meth telling you that? I’ve done my research and know meth fucks you up pretty bad. I can almost forgive most of the stuff you did to me. And I got rid of it because of too many bad memories I’m trying to forget. I’m trying to live my life to my fullest since I nearly had it ripped away from me. Thank god Mr. Black believed me.”

“Son…I-”

“If you do get out, don’t contact me or try to find me. I’ll call the police if you do. I only came today to be nice. To maybe get an apology. But if you’re trying to garner sympathy from me or you’re trying to get your sentenced reduced, forget it. Your wife tried the same bullshit with me already. You both became dead to me when you tried to make me your scapegoat.”

“You…you had to have known that what we put in the coffee-”

Tweek sighed and shook his head. “I was ten and whatever **_IT_** was, looked like already ground up coffee. And results don’t lie. I never had it in my system. Both of you **_DID_**.”

The blonde stood up and pushed his chair in. “I’m done here. Goodbye Richard. I mean it, don’t contact me if you ever get out.”

————————-

Tweek slid into the passenger seat and accepted the quick peck on the cheek and the warm coffee Craig gave him.

“How did it go?”

“Feels like the final chapter in that nightmare is over. Told them to never contact me again. Told the facility to take my name and contact information off too.”

Craig nodded and started the car. “Ready to go home to South Park? Mom’s gonna have roast when we get there.”

“Mom’s a broad term for me Craig.”

“ ** _MY_** mom if you want to be all technical. We all can’t have seven parents like you do.”

“It’s not my fault I’m the good kid of the group.”

Craig’s only response was ruffling Tweek’s hair, making it look wild and untamed like it had been all those years ago.


End file.
